The combination of volatile oil prices and increasingly stringent emission standards is making natural gas much more attractive as a fuel for many ship-owners and shipping companies. This trend has led Pon Power to study applications that would allow natural gas to be used in diesel engines.

The Marine Excellence Center (MEC) and Pon Power have recently set up a joint research project on the application of LNG (liquefied natural gas) or CNG (compressed natural gas) as dual fuel for Caterpillar marine diesel engines. The dual fuel concept means that the engine runs on two kinds of fuel - diesel and natural gas — at the same time.
The advantage is that the original diesel engine design can be maintained — unlike those engines that switch from one kind of fuel to another, where the engine design has to be modified. This project was triggered by the interest of a big Egyptian shipping company, which operates a large fleet of push barges on the Nile. This company plans to build seventy new vessels, and is considering the use of gas as a fuel. MEC is working together with the Egyptian Caterpillar dealer Mantrac on this investigation.

Certification

The aim of the project is to get the dual fuel application approved by a recognized marine classification society. This would be an important step forward in promoting the sale of this technology to maritime users. Contact has already been established with Caterpillar to reach agreement on the provision of warranties for this application.
It is planned to have the certification procedure for dual fuel applications of the C18 ACERT Marine Propulsion engine  completed by the final quarter of 2008.